The Daily Beast explains that at Cremona, Italy’s Stradivarius Museum, peerless 18th century violins are protected by cameras, alarms, and armed guards stationed both in the museum’s hallways and inside a remote control booth. Stradivarius violins are some of the most sought after and valuable instruments in the world. With instruments from the violin maker’s golden period of 1700 to 1725, it is a rare honor to set eyes, or hands, on one.
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, circa 2008, however, the Lipinski Strad—a 1715 Stradivarius violin valued at over $6 million, and rumored to have once been touched by the Devil himself—was left in the hands of acclaimed musician Frank Almond, whose sole means of safeguarding it was hiding a cell phone in its case, for GPS-tracking purposes. In 2014 Frank Almond was robbed of this one-of-a-kind Lipinski Stradivarius violin.
I was to come in contact with this famous violin when I represented Universal Allah, a humble barber obviously way in over his head when he hooked up with the mastermind of the offense, Salah Salahadyn.
That story, entitled “Plucked” was to be told by Joel Van Haren who is an award-winning journalist and Emmy-nominated cinematographer at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival at Village East Cinema on April 28, 2019 in New York City.
That film is coming to Milwaukee for the Milwaukee Film Festivel and will be shown at the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N Broadway, Milwaukee, WI 53202 on Tues., Oct. 22, 2019 at 6:45 pm and at the Oriental Main, 2230 N Farwell Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53202 on Friday , Oct. 25, 2019 at 9:15 pm
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